1 . Directions: Fill in each blank with a proper word chosen from the box. Each word can be used only once. Note that there is one word more than you need.

A. highlighting   B. total     C. enriched     D. urgent E. relief     F. perspective   G. ignoring     H. altered I. filling     J. separate   K. downgraded

Chinese Women Bridging Gap

Zhang Jianli used to employ only male workers on his construction sites throughout Chifeng, Inner Mongolia. Now with large quantities of work but inadequate manpower, Mr. Zhang has     1    his mind. He offers daily wages of roughly 160 yuan for women workers to do such routine work as moving wood and bricks, and up to 200 yuan a day for     2    or complicated jobs.

A labor shortage is pushing employers to hire more women to build high-rises, maintain rail tracks and drive trucks, among other roles. Chinese women are     3     the labor shortage. They are increasingly taking on heavy-labor jobs long dominated by men in construction or transportation,     4     traditional gender roles.

Women’s presence on construction sites has grown a lot. As a consequence, employers have set up     5     living spaces and bathrooms for them. About one-third of the workers on some construction sites in major cities are women, according to estimates by researchers who study China’s labor and gender issues. Just eight years ago, women accounted for just over one-tenth of the     6     , according to a survey of over 6,000 construction workers in nine cities. Over time, the types of jobs performed by women have been     7     —truck driving and machine handling added to their working list.

State media, in recent years, have praised the roles of women working as truck drivers and construction workers,     8    their contribution to the economy. In July, Xinhua News Agency featured Xu Yingying, a kind-hearted woman truck driver, who delivered     9    materials to the virus-stricken Hubei province three times within nine days last year. “Having lived through so much, I feel that the best status of a woman is being self-independent, living to become a beam of light and warming others,” she shared her     10    in the video.

2 . Directions: Fill in each blank with a proper word chosen from the box. Each word can be used only once. Note that there is one word more than you need.

A. engagement B. specific C. observed   D. wandering   E. resembled F. follow G. implements H. finding I. improvements J. translate K. require

Brain Training through Virtual Reality

Scientists have long sought to prevent sharp memories from dulling with age, but the problem remains persistent. Now new research suggests virtual reality might help older people recall facts and events based on     1     details.

The study involved 42 healthy older adults from the San Francisco Bay Area. Half spent a dozen hours over four weeks playing a virtual-reality game called Labyrinth; they wore headsets and walked in place,     2     virtual neighbourhoods while completing tasks. The other half, in the control group, used electronic tablets to play games that didn’t     3     finding positions or recalling details. After 15 sessions, the latter performed roughly the same as before on a long-term memory test based on picking out objects they had seen about an hour earlier. But the Labyrinth players’ scores rose, and they were less frequently tricked by objects that     4     the ones they had viewed.

Those     5     “brought them back up to the level of another group of younger adults who did the same memory tests,” says Peter Wais, the researcher who designed the VR game. The game likely stimulates the hippocampus — a brain area important for long-term memory. What the Wais’s team is trying to do is uniquely suited to VR,” says Meredith Thompson, who studies learning through VR games but was not involved in the new study. “VR can provide greater     6     than other games,” she says, adding that after this proof-of-concept study, “it would be great to actually     7     people over time and see what this type of game does for long-term memory.” Wais’s team is now investigating how long the     8     effects last and which elements of the training have the most impact.

It remains unclear how test performance in a laboratory setting might     9     to real-world situations. The outcome, needs to be repeated, ideally with a much larger group, before it’s treated as a strong     10    .

3 . Directions: Fill in each blank with a proper word chosen from the box. Each word can only be used once. Note that there is one word more than you need.

A. housing        B. leisurely        C. sought        D. reference        E. primarily     F. leg G. winding        H. wildly        I. pioneered        J. major        K. highlight

18^th Century Grand Tour of Europe

The Grand Tour began in the 16^th century and gained popularity during the 17 th century. Privileged（有特权的）young European graduates     1     a trend where they traveled across the continent in search of art and cultural experiences upon their graduation. This practice, which grew to be     2     popular, became known as the Grand Tour. Specialty guidebooks, tour guides, and other aspects of the tourist industry were developed during this time to meet the needs of wealthy 20-something male and female travelers as they explored the European continent.

These young, classically - educated Tourists were rich enough to fund multiple years abroad for themselves and they took full advantage of this. They carried letters of     3     and introduction with them as they departed from southern England to communicate with and learn from people they met in other countries. Some Tourists     4     to continue their education and broaden their horizons while abroad, some were just after fun and     5     travels, but most desired a combination of both.

A typical journey through Europe was long and     6     with many stops along the way. London was commonly used as a starting point and the Tour was usually kicked off with a difficult trip across the English Channel. Crossing the wide channel was and is not easy. 17^th – and - 18^th - century Tourists risked sea-sickness, illness, and even shipwreck on this first     7     of travel.

Grand Tourists were     8     interested in visiting cities that were considered centers of culture at the time, so Paris, Rome, and Venice were not to be missed. The average Grand Tourist traveled from city to city, usually spending weeks in smaller cities and months in the three     9     ones.

The vast majority of Tourists took part in similar activities during their exploration with art at the center of it all. Once a Tourist arrived at a destination, he would look for     10     and settle in for anywhere from weeks to months, even years. Though certainly not an overly trying experience for most, the Grand Tour presented a unique set of challenges for travelers to overcome.

4 . Directions: Complete the following passage by using the words in the box. Each word can only be used once. Note that there is one word more than you need.

A. associated   B. Additionally   C. countless   D. existence   E. fundamental F. highlight   G. Meanwhile   H. signal   I. strengthened   J. surprise   K. uniquely

What Sociology Can Teach UsAbout Thanksgiving

Sociologists （社会学家） believe that the celebrations practiced within any given culture serve to restate that culture’s most important values and beliefs. This theory dates back to founding sociologist Émile Durkheim and has been proved true by     1     researchers over more than a century’s time. According to sociologists, by examining a celebration, we can come to understand some     2     things about the culture in which it is practiced. In this spirit, let’s take a look at what Thanksgiving reveals about us.

It may not be much of a（n）     3     that coming together to share a meal with loved ones indicates how important relationships with friends and family are in our culture, which is far from a（n）     4     American thing. When we gather together to share in this holiday, we effectively say, “Your     5     and our relationship is important to me,” and in doing so, that relationship is restated and     6    . But there are some less obvious and more interesting things going on too.

In most households across the U. S. women and girls do the work of preparing, serving, and cleaning up after the Thanksgiving meal.     7    , most men and boys are likely to be watching and/or playing football. Of course, neither of these activities are exclusively gendered, but they are generally so. This means that Thanksgiving serves to     8     the distinct roles we believe men and women should play in society, and even what it means to be a man or a woman in our society today.

One of the most interesting sociological research findings is that overeating     9     with Thanksgiving illustrates American materialism and abundance. Sociologists found that the celebrations and how we talk about these experiences     10     that Thanksgiving is really about celebrating “material abundance” — having a lot of stuff, especially food, available for use.

5 . Directions:Fill in each blank with a proper word chosen from the box.Each word can be used only once.Note that there is one word more than you need.

A.tirelessly B. urgency C.concrete D.acknowledged E.roadmap F.call G committed H. intended I. update J. summed K.just

The pressure for change is building: reactions to the Glasgow climate pact

The Glasgow climate package, aimed at ensuring the world limits global heating to 1.5C above pre-industrial levels, was     1     even by the UK hosts as“imperfect", and leaves much of the hard work on cutting greenhouse gas emissions for next year. Boris Johnson,the UK prime minister, said:“We asked nations to come together for our planet at Cop 26, and they have answered that     2     . I want to thank the leaders, negotiators and campaigners who made this pact (协议、契约）happen and the people of Glasgow who welcomed them with open arms."

"There is still a huge amount more to do in the coming years. But today's agreement is a big step forward and, critically, we have the first ever international agreement to phase down (逐步减少)coal and a     3     to limit global warming to 1.5C. I hope that we will look back on Cop 26 in Glasgow as the beginning of the end of climate change, and I will continue to work     4     towards that goal."

Al Gore,the former US vice-president,also praised the public pressure put on world leaders at the conference: “The Glasgow Climate Pact and the pledges made at Cop26 move the global community forward in our urgent work to address the climate crisis and limit global temperature rise to 1.5C, but we know this progress, while meaningful,is not enough. “We must move faster to deliver a     5     transition away from fossil fuels and toward a cleaner and more equitable future for our planet.The progress achieved in the lead-up and at Cop26 was only possible because of the power of people young and old using their voices to demand action."

Many developed and developing countries nailed the progress it represented on the world's goals .But green campaigners warned that the     6     of the climate crisis meant the world was running out of time. Frans Timmermans, executive vice-president of the European Commission,     7     up many countries' reactions, saying:“'It doesn't stop here,it only starts."

On the last-minute weakening of language about phasing out coal, Timmermans said: "Let's be clear, I'd rather not have the change. I was very happy with the language we had." But he added it was “like going from 24 carat gold to 18 carat, it's still gold...we are now making     8     steps to eliminate coal ...and that countries that are so dependent on coal are willing to be part of that agreement is astonishing".

Countries will have to return next year and the year after to     9     their targets on cutting greenhouse gas emissions. Laurence Tubiana, one of the architects of the 2015 Paris deal and now CEO of the European Climate Foundation, said the outcome showed that the 2015 Paris climate agreement was working as     10    .

6 . Directions: After reading the passage below, fill in each blank with a proper word given in the box. Each word can be used only once. Note that there is one more word than you need.

A. diverse            B. dominance            C. cracks            D. core            E. schedule            F. application G. landmark        H. promote          I. alternative            J. echoes            K. connectivity

China's BeiDou System Prepared for Serving Whole World

China launched the last satellite of the BeiDou Navigation Satellite System (BDS) on June 23, marking the completion of the country's homegrown orbital navigation network in a(n)     1    step towards the peaceful exploration of space.

The BeiDou network, a major infrastructure domestically constructed and operated, can better meet the demands of China's national security, economic as well as social development. It can also provide more stable and reliable services, as well as a(n)     2     to the U.S.-owned Global Positioning System(GPS) for global users.

Given the national security concerns due to GPS's     3    ,China has not been the only nation in the world to have striven to develop its own satellite navigation system.Thus one of the BDS's primary principles has been local innovation. The key components as well as     4     technologies and software of the BDS have all been independently developed and manufactured by China itself. Such an independent drive in the field of scientific and technological research and development     5     the very spirit that had been pursued by many Chinese scientists who had once dedicated themselves to the "Two Bombs, One Satellite" project when China had been under nuclear threat by some of the world's major powers.

After 26 years of difficult work, the BDS has now earned a global reputation for its high-accuracy service and various service capabilities. According to the United Nations Office for Outer Space Affairs, the services provided by BeiDou are already helping to     6    social and economic development around the world.

Indeed, the BDS-based solutions have already been successfully adopted in     7    field as land registration, precise agriculture, digital construction and the monitoring and management of vehicles and ships. Also, the BDS-enabled products have already been exported to more than 100 countries, providing users with a variety of choices and an enhance     8     experience.

Thousands of years ago, the Chinese invented the compass, which had made long-range voyages on rough and vast seas possible, helping to give directions in the Age of Discovery.

Today, the BDS network is prepared to promote an even stronger global     9    in this age of globalization, helping countries worldwide to     10     their own courses towards a better future.

7 . Directions: Fill in each blank with a proper word chosen from the box. Each word can be used only once. Note that there is one word more than you need.

A. genuinely       B. pocket       C. mass-produced       D. seemingly       E. inspiration F. familiarize       G. group       H. encounter       I. customary       J. symbolic       K. motivation

A Deeper Meaning behind Souvenirs

“Nobody sits us down and tells us to collect objects when we’re young,” writes Rolf Potts, “it’s just something we do, as a way to    1    ourselves with the world, its possibilities, and our place in it.”

Few of us would call ourselves collectors, but most travelers     2    a seashell from a vacation, or bring a keychain. As Mr. Potts notes in a book called “Souvenir,” there is more to this     3    simple practice than meets the eye. For one thing, it can date back to the oldest described journeys, so it’s a    4    practice that goes back thousands of years. And academic researchers have classified souvenirs -- even    5    items like “I Love New York” T-shirts and plastic miniatures of Michelangelo’s David -- into various categories, likely unknown to many travelers.

Which categories do the things we’ve bought or found in our travels fall into? Further, what’s     6    behind our need to bring home souvenirs?

Over time, intellectual curiosity became the driving    7    for personal travel. Yet even as travelers began collecting historical and scientific souvenirs, not just religious items, the things they brought home stood for feelings for holy objects.

Scholars    8    these souvenirs into different buckets, including “markers” (location branded items like T-shirts and teacups), “pictorial images” (postcards and posters), and “    9    landmarks” (for example, Statue of Liberty key chains), with the latter two categories symbolizing, though not exclusive to, mass tourism.

In the end, “Souvenir” suggests that its meaning is not fixed because its importance to the owner can change over time and that its significance is closely related to the traveler’s identity. Mr. Potts himself has had plenty of souvenirs, things that remind him not merely of the places he’s been and the extraordinary     10    between him and local people, but of former life phases. “When we collect souvenirs,” he writes, “we do so not to evaluate the world, but to tell the self.”

8 . Directions: Fill in each blank with a proper word chosen from the box. Each word can be used only once. Note that there is one word more than you need.

A. inclusion     B. significant     C. exclude   D. implement   E. saving   F. house G. confirmed   H. interconnected     I. desirability       J. ambitious   K. concentrating

Plans revealed for high-tech “10-minute city” in Seoul

The idea of a “15-minute city”, in which residents can all reach work and leisure facilities within a quarter-hour walk — or cycle — of their homes, has gained     1     attention among urban planners during the Covid-19 pandemic.

Now, a group of architects is planning an even more     2     neighborhood in South Korea’s capital, Seoul: a 10-minute city.

Named “Project H1”, the development is set to transform an old industrial site into a(n)     3     “smart” city. Combining eight residential buildings with co-working offices and study spaces, the 125-acre district is also set to     4     entertainment sites, fitness centers, swimming pools and even urban farms.

Designed by Dutch architecture firm UNStudio and backed by a real estate firm, the neighborhood will also be completely car-free. A press release for the project claimed that “all the conveniences of the city” will be within a 10-minute walk of people’s homes.

In a statement, UNStudio co-founder Ben van Berkel said that residents’ “daily life experience” is the project’s “top priority”.

“We do this through the     5     of a rich density of uplifting, on-site experiences that provide an extensive range of options for how they can spend their living, working and leisure time, thereby also     6     them the time needed to travel elsewhere in the city,” he is quoted as saying.

A spokesperson for UNStudio     7     that project has been green-lit but did not reveal when it is likely to break ground.

The architects also said that clean energy will be produced on site, while systems to capture and store rain are being designed to reduce water use.

Critics have suggested that the concept could cause urban renewal by further     8     wealth in the most accessible and convenient districts. The     9     of “15-minute” neighborhoods may, in turn, result in home prices that     10     low-income and marginalized communities. But the Covid-19 pandemic has seen growing interest in the concept.

9 . Directions: Fill in each blank with a proper word chosen from the box. Each word can be used only once. Note that there is one word more than you need.

A. grade       B. commercialized       C. demand       D. unproductive       E. sampled F. protected       G. process       H. contributor       I. transport       J. cultivation K. consumption

Eco-friendly, lab-grown coffee is on the way

Heiko Rischer isn’t quite sure how to describe the taste of lab-grown coffee. This summer he     1     one of the first batches (批) in the world produced from cell cultures (细胞培养) rather than coffee beans.

“To describe it is difficult but, for me, it was in between a coffee and a black tea,” said Rischer, head of plant biotechnology at the VTT Technical Research Centre of Finland, which developed the coffee. “It depends really on the roasting     2    , and this was a bit of a lighter roast, so it had a little bit more of a tea-like feeling.”

People have to wait before they can taste the coffee, as this cellular agriculture innovation is not yet approved for public     3    . Rischer predicts that VTT’s lab-grown coffee could get approval from the governments in Europe and the US in about four years’ time, paving the way for a     4     product that could have a much lower climate impact than conventional coffee.

The coffee industry is both a     5     to the climate crisis and very vulnerable (脆弱的) to its effects. Rising     6     for coffee has been linked to deforestation (砍伐森林) in developing nations, damaging biodiversity and releasing carbon emissions. At the same time, coffee producers are struggling with the impacts of more extreme weather, from frosts to droughts. It’s estimated that half of the land used to grow coffee could be     7     by 2050 due to the climate crisis.

In response to the industry’s challenges, companies and scientists are trying to develop and commercialize coffee made without coffee beans.

VTT’s coffee is grown by floating cell cultures in bioreactors (生物反应堆) filled with a nutrient. The     8     requires no pesticides and has a much lower water footprint, said Rischer, and because the coffee can be produced in local markets, it cuts     9     emissions. The company is working on a life cycle analysis of the process. “Once we have those figures, we will be able to show that the environmental impact will be much lower than what we have with traditional     10    ,” Rischer said.

10 . Directions: Fill in each blank with a proper word chosen from the box. Each word can be used only once. Note that there is one word more than you need

A. potentially       B. results       C. rewards       D. sensitive       E. survival        F. transmit       G. distinguish       H. responding       I. developed       J. conscious       K. rapidly

Sense of smell is our most rapid warning system

“The human avoidance response to unpleasant smells associated with danger has long been seen as a    1     perceivable process, but our study shows for the first time that it’s unconscious and extremely rapid,” says the study’s first author Behzad Iravani, researcher at the Department of Clinical Neuroscience, Karolinska Institutet.

The organ relating to the sense of smell takes up about five per cent of the human brain and enables us to    2    between many million different smells. A large proportion of these smells are associated with a threat to our health and    3    , such as that of chemicals and rotten food. Smell signals reach the brain within 100 to 150 milliseconds after being breathed in through the nose.

The survival of all living organisms depends on their ability to avoid danger and seek    4    . In humans, the smell sense seems particularly important for detecting and reacting to    5    harmful substance.

It has long been a mystery just which sensory systems are involved in the change of an unpleasant smell into avoidance behavior in humans. Researchers at Karolinska Institutet have now    6    a method that for the first time has made it possible to measure signals from the human smell organ, which processes smells and in turn can    7    signals to parts of the brain that control movement and avoidance behavior.

Their    8     are based on three experiments in which participants were asked to rate their   experience of six different smells, some positive, some negative, while the electrophysiological activity of the smell organ when    9    to each of the smells was measured.

“It was clear that the organ reacts specifically and    10    to negative smells and sends a direct signal to the outer layer of the organ within about 300 ms,” says the study’s last author Johan Lundström. ” The signal causes the person to unconsciously lean back and away from the source of the smell.”